2001/01/11 by Celine Peroux, Céline Péroux, Lisa J. Storrie‐Lombardi +6 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Absorption (acoustics) #Absorption spectroscopy #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Lyman limit #Observatory #Optics #Physics #Quasar #Redshift #Spectral line #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/319967
Accepted for publication in Astronomical Journal. Compact version with minimal tables and figures and other information about the z>4 quasar projects are available at: http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~quasars/
arxiv created 2001/01/11 · openalex publication_date 2001/04/01 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
We present high signal-to-noise, ∼5 Å resolution (FWHM) spectra of 66 z ≳ 4 bright quasars obtained with the 4 m Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory and 4.2 m William Hershel telescopes. The primary goal of these observations was to undertake a new survey for intervening absorption systems detected in the spectra of background quasars. We look for both Lyman-limit systems (column densities N ≥ 1.6 × 10 17 atoms cm -2 ) and damped Lyα systems (column densities N ≥ 2 × 10 20 atoms cm -2 ). This work resulted in the discovery of 49 Lyman-limit systems, 15 of which are within 3000 km s -1 of the quasar emission and thus might be associated with the quasar itself, 26 new damped Lyα absorption candidates, 15 of which have z > 3.5, and numerous metal absorption systems. In addition, 10 of the quasars presented here exhibit intrinsic broad absorption lines.